Michael Noonan (filmmaker)
| Michael Noonan | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Michael Joseph Noonan Melbourne, Australia |
| Occupation | Screenwriter, director, producer, academic |
Michael Noonan is an Australian filmmaker and academic. He is a five-time finalist at Tropfest, the world's biggest short film festival, a two-time AWGIE nominee, and winner of Best Documentary at the Inside Film Awards.
His PhD in film and television production, titled Laughing & Disability: Comedy, Collaborative Authorship and ‘Down Under Mystery Tour’, was the subject of significant international controversy, some calling it "misanthropic and amoral trash", and others celebrating it as an "important contribution" to the representation of disability.
Noonan began his PhD at Queensland University of Technology in 2007, having previously completed a Master of Arts (Research) and a Bachelor of Arts (Film and Television Production). The research project, then titled Laughing at the Disabled: Creating Comedy that Confronts, Offends and Entertains involved the production of a TV show starring two men with intellectual disabilities.
At the one-year mark of his candidature on 20 March 2007, Noonan presented his thesis-in-progress to staff and students at QUT as part of his Confirmation Seminar. The material presented at the seminar "had been screened and approved by an ethics audit committee, an external psychologist and representatives of a disability group."
Two senior academics at the university, Gary MacLennan and John Hookham, took exception to the subject matter Noonan presented, which included clips from the unfinished TV show. MacLennan was reported as saying to Noonan: "I have a handicapped child and I pray to God that my child never comes into contact with someone like you."
After the seminar, in April 2007, MacLennan and Hookham published an attack on the thesis in the Higher Education section of the national daily newspaper The Australian. In their article, they wrote that they could "no longer put up with the misanthropic and amoral trash produced under the rubric of postmodernist, post-structuralist thought", and the "last straw" was the Noonan thesis presentation. MacLennan and Hookham wrote: "For us, it was a moment of great shame and a burning testimony to the power of post-structuralist thought to corrupt."
Based on descriptions of Noonan's project in the article, many external groups and disability organisations condemned Noonan's work as "degrading".
A subsequent review of the ethical approval process for the project found "no evidence of harm, discomfort, ridicule or exploitation to the participants". The five-person panel noted "the positive enthusiasm of the participants involved, their treatment with dignity and sensitivity, and the warm way in which they were welcomed into the particular community where filming had occurred".
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